pathways

Here's a start - The best time of day is usually when the sun is

around or below 45° - which is almost all the time in the autumn.

Usually about an hour before sunset/rise the light becomes very

rich for about 15 minutes or so, with long shadows that are fully

lighted from the sky. When the sun is closer to the horizon the

shadow time occurs with its own magic opportunities; when it is

higher, the light tends to be more golden. The light becomes

whiter as the sun gets higher, and as it is close to the horizon

the reds, purples, pinks, oranges may blossom. These are all

lights from the sky that you will learn to read and use. Polarizer

is useful to tone down glare, and warming for the bluelight.

(Although I am the only photographer on the planet who often

forgets to take his warming filter off almost all the time when

autumn comes.) Velvia is beautiful if you are after shock value in

your pictures. Your lens fleet sounds great to me, I have never

had more than just two. Zone system is not the key to good

photography but it is an abolutely necessary step you must

climb up to or above. To begin with, only be concerned with the

basic exposure zones. If all you use is slide film you don't need

the others.

The word "art" just means skill; most of us probably would

require that there be some form of creativity applied to that skill -

in photography, not just making a picture of what we see, but

making an image that conveys to a viewer something of the

feelings that we had when we made the image. John and

Barbara Gerlash (who lurk here at photo.net occasionally), have

mastered the art of wildlife photography, and the best book I

have seen on these types of pictures is "Images of the Wild" by

Carl Sams & Jean Stoick. But the great master (IMVHO) is

Thomas Mangelson because he really brings feelings into his

wildlife photos - check him out here http://www.mangelsen.com/

and good luck with your work - John.

Here is a reference from a local paper about the upcoming color

season. http://www.maconnews.com/news.html#article3a

 

John.

Hi John, as far as the manual aspects of the camera are

concerned, you will get good information from Charles' book. I

would like to encourage all serious photographers (and other

artists) to build a bibliography for themselves. I have done that

as an adjunct to the classes that I teach, and Charles� book is on

that bibliography because it is the best book I have ever seen for

information to get the basic equipment and basic techniques

that you will need to begin serious nature photography. If you are

already performing at that level, Backpacker�s Photography

Handbook will still strike sparks for you. The Chroma-zone

Reference Cards© left me cold, and strike me as strange, even

weird - yet some of my students have said that they got

important understandings from them. My recommendation is

not to let the cards get in your way. The only credentials any

photographer can ever have is his or her photographs, and

Charles has outstanding credentials in this book. Great job,

Charles!! (For those interested in my bibliography, you can

check < http://home.earthlink.net/~pathways/photo.html >

(bottom center of matrix) and I hope it can help you build your

own.) John

A friend told me of a device that could be plugged into standard

8mm video/audio output jacks, receive that data, and output it

through USB to computer as digital He did not remember the

name but thought it might be something like "Dazzle" or

"Sparkle". Any comments? John

Hello Jake: Any form of art involves interpretation and

storytelling, and the meaning you got from that forest was an

interpretation of some message that you received. Perhaps that

is my Indian ancestory that is speaking. I have mentioned this in

my own newsletter several times, and have sence become

aware that it is not just the natural environment things that are

vanishing but many other things as well: corner grocery stores,

local banks, department stores, plus a number of farm animals

and implements that are not suitable to large scale farming.

There are a lot of photographs that we all could make right now

that will be very hard to make in just another 5 to 10 years. My

newsletter is on the web, if you would like URL for it, just write

me. John.

Just a comment. Martin is probably right, but video is going to

change everything.

Wildflowers are much more difficult than birds but astonishingly more simple than insects. You will need several books, I concentrate in the southern Blue Ridge area and regularly use about four good books. How to find them? Find local (regional) naturalists who give presentations and provide nature walks and then go and participate in several of them. They will also recommend books. My part of the country has a huge wildflower show but the flowers you see in March are not there in April; other flowers come out in May and June and by July it is a totally different crop, then come the late summer and autumn flowers of Aug, Sep & Oct. The really fine part of this show is the great variety, the problem is there is a lot to learn. Best book for western NC, north GA, east Tenn? Probably Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, ISBN 0-316-60442-9. It is a good book for the entire north central and north east of the US. Good luck and welcome to the show!

In spite of living about 45 min from the GSMNP, I seldom go there

because of traffic and pollution. I spend much more time on the Blue

Ridge Parkway between mile markers 413 (Pounding Mill OL) and 451

(Water Rock Knob). I have a website <

http://home.earthlink.net/~pathways/> in which there is a page called

Sites Routes and Observations in which I have marked the photo ops I

have found on this 38 mile stretch of high country (most of it above

5000') by mile marker and season of the year. I list my trips by

year, month, and date (today would be 010522) so you can see what I

encountered on my trips there. Perhaps other photographers who

frequent a particular area might do something similar. I also have a

newsletter (same website) which usually details current happenings.

The parkway has many great pics and is usually not crowded before 10

a.m. and after 4 p.m., which is when the light is good. Email me if

you want more

I have been using a video (Sony CCD-TRV16 (8)) for about a year and

have just discovered it has a "digital zoom". Tried it out, and now I

wonder why would anyone ever use the thing. Am I missing out on some

really big deal?

One thing to play with in fog is to try adding 1/2 to 1 EV if the fog is light and to subtract the same amount if the fog is very heavy and dark.

As for the Smokies, you may be a little bit early. The big show is late April and May for spring wildflowers. Some may be out in the lower elevations - try Cade's Cove. Otherwise the ephemerals should be in good shape. Good vistas are hard to come by in this area in the spring because most colors are pastel, and there is a lot of pollen in the air to combine with the almost overwhelming pollution. Color probably won't reach the higher elevations until early May. Check out the chimneys area, roaring fork as well.

Are you planning to use a camera with this tripod? If so, what kind?

In western North Carolina you are at risk in the autumn of being shot by dozing deer hunters or run off the road by bear hunters who are chasing their radio collared bear hounds along the back roads in pick-up trucks. (Wonder if a buddy with a .308 would help?) John.

Sounds like a great opportunity for you Bob: Just think how you would look in yellow and black - your own Cliff's Notebook - How to Make Nature Photographs, or maybe Nature Photography for Dummies. Well, somebody will probably do it and make more than that $200,000. John.

I was in Ding Darling a couple of weeks ago during the cold spell (lows down into the 30's!). Birds, alligators, racoons were warm and happy. $5 a car - no change. Holiday had brought lots of tourists, occasional problems parking. Bigger magnification the better the picture but there were many opportunities with egrets, herrons, storks, etc. wading no more than 10 to 20 feet away from the road. Easy way to pump up your inventory. Traffic took about 1.5 hours to get back to Ft. Meyers. Take lots of film. John.

Time of day is not as important as is the elevation of the sun. Here in the southern mountains of the US, the sun never gets above 45° in the sky from the middle of Oct to early in March. Autumn shooting in these mountains is an all-day spree. It is always better about an hour before and after sunset/rise because the light is yellow to orange or reddish, the sunlines are long, and the shadows are full and rich and still filled with light from the sky. But don't put your camera away just because of the time of day. Even in the summer (with sun almost 80° in the sky), I work the forests and areas in shadow from hills. Northern sides of mountains are often good at midday, just like south sides are sometimes tricky in October. If you like landscapes and have a good vantage point, make some all-day shoots, pick some spots at different angles from each other and shoot them at about two hour inervals - keep records and compare the results. John.

I would definitely recommend the book by Campbell; some of his color card ideas seem other worldly, but the basis of his book is very good. I might also mention my outdoor photography manual (ISBN 0-9655546-1-9), although it is basically designed for people who are new to nature photography or to the southern mountains. It does discusses concepts of interpretation and expression that are not normally found in a photo maual, and it also presents the use of color in a way that beginners can work with easily. John.

The sun can cause instant and permanent blindness to an eye (or eyes) and magnification can significantly reduce the time for permanent damage to less time than it takes to blink. You must have at least grade 14 welding glass to safely view an unmagnified solar disc. Sky and Telescope magazine has a definitive article on this: July, 1991, page 80. Read the archives here at photo.net - don't take a chance. John.

Most of the color is gone from the parkway. There is still some color below 3000 feet, some up to nearly 4000 in spots. Leaffall is now in progress in earnest. Oaks are still changing up at 5500 feet and above but their color is usually dark. Right now I am not traveling the 35 miles I have to go to get to the GSMNP or 37 miles to the BRP - not for color, at least. You might check out north Georgia mountains they can be spectacular and their color comes later than ours - I haven't been there (another 35 miles) for over a month. John.

This will be my last color update from western NC. Hiked today from

Wayah bald down AT to Wayah Campground. Color has gone sepia above

4,000 ft. From about 3800 to 2500 it is about as good as I have ever

seen it. Lots of colors with depth and vibrancy - magic has happened.

Temperatures are holding from 50s to 70s, no wind or rain. Have hear

that there is not much color west of Franklin - Murphy, Hayesville just

went brown. John.

About the cold - I don't know how cold it was on the mountains. Franklin got a low of about 27° - so with a dry adiabatic lapse rate of 5°/1000', since we're at 2500 feet, look for a low on the 6000 level of about 8° to 10° above. That's not real cold for here, especially with relatively calm winds. The problems here are dryness - three years of drought - and pollution. The air is so bad I won't go into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park unless I check the indices before. Only Texas has worse pollution than the park. As far as the bears are concerned, one of our local photographers said he saw at Cade's Cove, two days ago, a mother and her young son going up to a mother bear with cub and the young son fed the cub a candy bar out of his hand while his father photographed it all with his camcorder. Mother bear was about three feet away. The wonder is that when bears do attack it is so rare. Fifteen miles away bear hunters are speeding across the dirt roads in the mountains following the progress of their bear hounds with radio signals sent from the transmitters on the dog's collar. When they tree a bear, a mercury switch sends a different signal & the hunters converge & shoot the bear out of the tree. Nothing like being at the right place at the right time.

Just returned from the October meeting of the Franklin (NC) Camera Club tonight and one photographer was on the Cherohala Skyway today and said that the color was "fabulous". He's going back tomorrow. Another rode the Smoky Mountain Railroad out of Sylva to the park & back and said he saw a lot of color, " ... very intense in places". I will probably work the back roads around Franklin and out US 64w over the remainder of the week. There is a lot of color everywhere now and deepening by the hour. What we are waiting to see now is does "magic" take place like it did in 1996. That is, does the red tweak into scarlet and crimson, and the yellow into gold? It will take another 72 hours to find out. John.

Went on the Blue Ridge Parkway today from mile 419 to 444. Color is

gone above 4800 feet, some white oaks are doing some red, blueberry

bushes deep dark red. Some ice but no problem as far as driving.

Aspect is mostly sepia/green/achromaticia. Graveyard Fields is past

peak, basically gray, the wild fire cherry trees are red, but

brilliance and saturation are not good. From 3500 to 4300 feet (or so)

lots of color. Maples are bright red/gold, beeches shrivled, chestnuts

have lost leaves early, oaks still green down there. Color is intense

where you find it - need tight groupings. Leaves seem to be moving

quickly (about 5 days) from first color to brown/shriveled. Traffic

moderate, no crowds. John.

As far as a "peak" for this part of the country is concerned, it really varies from location to location, and with the elevation and which side of the mountain the trees are (north side usually turns before the south side). Right now the red maples seem to have moved into the color scheme, but the hickories are pretty much still green. The birch leaves are largly on the forest floor, the sourwoods are going to a deep purple-red (11-10-3). We have very few sugar maples, but they are begining to turn also - the chestnuts are turning yellow now. I plan to do most of my work between Oct 16 - 30. We did have a couple of freezes but only down to about 26 or 27, not really enough to have a fast response. John.